According to the World Bank Report titled “Beaten or Broken? Informality and COVID-19 in South Asia” the closure of schools due to COVID-19 pandemic in India will cause a loss of anywhere between USD 420 Billion & USD 600 Billion in Country’s Future Earnings, in addition to learning losses.
The report has been jointly prepared by the joint product of Office of Chief Economist for the South Asia Region (SARCE) and Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment (MTI) Global Practice.
Key Points:
i.The report includes South Asian countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
ii.South Asia alone is set to lose USD 622 Billion due to School closures in the present scenario or up to $880 billion in a more pessimistic scenario.
iii.The pandemic is expected to cause around 5.5 Million students to drop out from the education system.
iv.An Average child in South Asia will lose USD 4, 400 in Lifetime earnings, which is 5 percent of his total earnings.
Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS):
i.The World Bank has introduced the LAYS (Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling) concept to combine access and learning outcomes into a single measure.
ii.It combines quantity (years of schooling) and quality (Knowledge of kids at a given grade level) into a single summary measure of human capital in a society.
iii.Using the LAYS concept, the World Bank has projected the learning loss for the South Asian region is 0.5 years (has gone down from 6.5 LAYS to 6.0 LAYS due to Pandemic).
Recent Related News:
i.World Bank in its latest edition of the Global Economic Prospect (GEP) June 2020 analytical chapters reports states that India’s growth is contracted by 3.2%(so growth is -3.2%) for FY20-21.
About World Bank Group:
President – David R. Malpass
Headquarters – Washington D.C.
